Newsletter: October 2023

Welcome to the second anniversary of our museum newsletter! We've come so far in the last two years and this month has seen us doing even more outreach to share stories from the Royal Mint.

Senedd Event

The Royal Mint Museum team were delighted to be part of the Welsh Museums Advocacy Day at the Senedd in October. The Federation of Museums and Art Galleries of Wales, Amgueddfa Cymru and the Museums Association co-organised the important event that celebrated the contribution of Welsh Museums to the people of Wales.

Our stall highlighted how we have supported community wellbeing and engagement with our Reminiscence Boxes. Amy our Education and Learning Manager, Beth our Project Coordinator and Megan our Museum Assistant showed the attendees our past and present Reminiscence Box collections, including our new Welsh language collection. Many thanks to the organisers of this brilliant event!

Charles III coin launch

In the last few weeks you may have seen members of our team on TV and in the news as they supported the Royal Mint with the launch of the new definitive United Kingdom coins. Our Director, Dr Kevin Clancy, and our Information and Research Manager, Chris Barker, were interviewed extensively about the new range which celebrates the King’s passion for nature and wildlife.

Kevin and Chris were able to provide historical context to the launch of the new coins, exploring the journey of British coinage from heraldry to more naturalistic designs. They also highlighted some of the other coins inspired by the natural world such as the Irish Free State coinage of the 1920s and the delightful wren on the pre-decimal farthing of the 1950s.

1st Gilwern Beavers

Earlier this month the Education Manager visited 1st Gilwern Beavers to help them get their Money Badge. The beavers watched a talk about the history of Money and the Royal Mint and then took part in a craft activity to design their own coins inspired by their local area. The group was very enthusiastic and had some excellent questions.

The Royal Mint Museum offers outreach for local youth and community groups and can offer virtual sessions for groups further afield. You can find out more here.

We also plan to re-purpose some of our highly successful reminiscence boxes, currently aimed at residents of care homes, to be available for use by youth and community groups soon. Watch this space!

Filming

This month we were excited to continue our work with Huw James, film maker, content creator and science communicator, and Fran Scott, TV presenter, science and engineering communicator and demo developer.

In 2022 we began an exciting project to create a series of short films for 11-14 year olds explaining and promoting the work of the Royal Mint. The films are used to help teachers and pupils explore links to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects within the Mint and cover a range of topics from designing coins, tool making, coin striking, and logistics.

This year we have been back to the factory to explore more of the Royal Mint’s processes including medal making and the new e-waste recycling plant.

You can find the existing videos on our website and YouTube channel. Keep following us and subscribe for more information about our new films later on in the year.

Collections Day

Our collection underpins all the work we do and the objects and archival material we have in our care tell important stories about the history of the Royal Mint. For this reason, in October we held a Collections Day for our team.

Everyone in the Museum spared some time from their busy day to sort, catalogue and arrange material into our archives and collections. This process gave members of the team the opportunity to explore our archives in more depth, ensure our records are up to date, carry out condition checks and do some all-important re-cataloguing! It is also a great chance to get everyone away from a screen and hands-on with the reason we are all here. Pictured are three of our team working through the archived sales and marketing material from Royal Mint products over the last 40 years. While it might seem unusual to keep copies of marketing letters in an archive, these documents can tell us a great deal about the everyday work of the Royal Mint and, in many cases, give a 'behind-the-scenes' view of what was going on at the Mint in decades past.